Experiencing the universe, within

by Sayagyi U Goenka


[from the article 'Vedanā Within This Very Body', Vipassana Research Institute newsletter, January 1993]


The entire universe can be experienced within this fathom-long body. The truth of nature is within. Suffering is within. The cause of suffering is within. The way out of suffering is within. Happiness is within.

This is why Vipassana meditators explore the entire mind-matter structure within, this continuously changing phenomenon called ‘I’.

With Vipassana, we experience the subtler realities of this inner world of impermanence within. We gradually come out of ignorance, delusions.

Suffering reduces. Real happiness increases. Impurities get eradicated. The chains of bondage weaken. The door to liberation opens.

The doors of the six sense organs, including the mind, are within the body. These six sense doors come in contact with the world outside.

The universe exists for us only when the sense doors come in contact with the world outside: a visible form in the eye, a sound in the ear, a fragrance in the nose, a taste in tongue, a touch on the body and a thought in the mind.

A visible form, for example, exists for us only when it comes into contact with the eyes. Otherwise it has no existence for us. The entire universe is experienced through these six sense doors. As the Fully Enlightened Super-Scientist said, the entire universe is experienced within this fathom-long body.

To explore the reality within this mind-body structure, the Vipassana meditator works objectively like a scientist.

Set aside all prior beliefs, philosophies, imaginations, and dogmas. To realize the ultimate truth within, work only with the truth that you experience - not blindly accepting another's experience. Accept as truth only what you experience.

How the mind works

When a sense door comes in contact with an external object, cognition arises. You experience how when eyes are in contact with a visible form, eye consciousness arises— cognition.

You realize this contact produces a vibration - a sensation spreading throughout your body, like striking a bronze vessel at one spot causes the entire vessel to vibrate.

After cognition, perception starts. A part of the mind gives evaluation: the visible form is seen as a male, female, beautiful, ugly.

Sensations, a bio-chemical flow arising in the body, are influenced by this evaluation. If the part of the mind gives evaluation of the object as "good", the sensation is felt as pleasant. If evaluated as "bad", the sensation is unpleasant.

Then the blind reaction. The mind reacts with craving to the pleasant sensations, aversion to unpleasant.

Thus, the Vipassana meditator clearly understands from experience how the four parts of the mind work: consciousness, perception, sensation, and reaction.

Stopping the wheel of misery

Craving multiplies the pleasant sensation, and the pleasant sensation intensifies craving. Aversion multiplies the unpleasant sensation, and unpleasant sensations reinforce aversion.

The meditator working correctly experiences how this blind reaction to bodily sensations starts a vicious cycle which gathers momentum. This is the wheel of becoming, of misery.

The same process follows with the other sense doors: ear, nose, taste in the tongue, a physical contact with the body, a thought in the mind.

In this way the wheel of becoming continues rotating, gathering intensity with craving and aversion.

The wheel of misery stops rotating with the Vipassana practice of awareness and equanimity to bodily sensations.

Not merely observe sensations, experience the arising, passing away

Merely to feel sensations is not enough to purify the mind. Very necessary to experience the three characteristics of all phenomena: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering), and anatta (substancelessness).

Of these three, the Buddha gave all importance to anicca because the realisation of the other two easily follows when experiencing deeply the characteristic of impermanence.

Vipassana meditators should not merely objectively observe sensations, but make the effort to clearly experience the arising, passing nature of these sensations (anicca).

Exploring the truth within in this correct way, all subtle truths of nature are realized.

The meditator begins by experiencing gross, solidified, apparent truths. Piercing, penetrating these solidified realities at the level of bodily sensations, the meditator experiences subtler truths. From the grossest to subtler, you reach the stage of the subtlest, ultimate truth.

Learn to observe with equanimity the truth of impermanence; experience the arising, passing bodily sensations. Be liberated from impurities, ignorance, delusions, suffering. Stop the wheel of becoming, of bondage, of misery. Attain real happiness.

May all beings be happy, be peaceful, be liberated.

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Vipassana Centres worldwide

 * How to Reach Global Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai, India

Living life each moment, these difficult times

From an article in The Statesman newspaper, 12 August edition


These difficult pandemic months may seem like days “dragging slowly” - a perception of time. Days pass neither slower nor faster. Time, life’s primary factor, needs better understanding for a better life.

We know time’s value, it being “more precious than gold”. Our daily lives get defined by time, of deadlines and appointments to keep. We make plans for years. But what do we really know of time?

Time is the mind this moment. Conventional science knows much about the physical organ called the brain, but knows little about the entity called the mind.

A better quality of life depends on how well we use the mind, and how well we use time. Stress lessens when the mind is with reality of the present moment. No pining for the past, no anxieties of the future.

The ancient practice of Vipassana trains the mind to be in the present moment – an extraordinary difficulty. My first 10-day Vipassana course in Dhamma Thali, Jaipur, was when I realized for the first time how much the mind wanders wildly to past or future - but rarely stays in reality of this present moment.

"The ultimate truth is the truth of this moment, not of moments that have passed, nor of moments that are yet to come,” explained Principal Teacher of Vipassana Sayagyi U Goenka (1924 – 2013). “The moments that have passed can only be remembered; the moments that are yet to come can only be imagined or desired. Only the present moment can be experienced, not past nor moments of the future.”

All that is past and future is condensed in this present moment of time. What is the present moment?

Our mundane world functions with the base unit of time as a second. The International System of Units defines the second as about 9 billion oscillations of the caesium atom. In a second, the caesium-133 atom arises and passes nine billion times. So much activity at the subatomic level within a second - of time understood externally through science.

Life changes at deeper level with experiential understanding – of experiencing realities of nature within, through using one’s mind-body as laboratory.

These inner scientists can be Himalayan ascetics and householder meditators achieving high levels of purity of the mind, where life becomes this moment.

The fully enlightened super-scientist called the Buddha declared 2,500 years ago of all matter being made of indivisible subatomic particles called ‘kalapas’. Kalapas arise and pass trillions of times within a second, he said. Life is a sum-total of such moments, of this present moment.

In Rangoon of 1951, Myanmar’s incorruptible Accountant General and Vipassana teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899 – 1971) gave a lecture on the Buddha’s enlightened realizations to a study group of officials from the Special Technical and Economic Division of the U.S. Government.

“By introspective meditation of the realities of nature within his own self, it came vividly to him that there is no substantiality, as there seems to be, in the human body,” U Ba Khin said, “and that it is the sum total of innumerable millions of kalapas (subatomic particles), each about 1/46,656th part of a particle of dust from the wheel of a chariot in summer”.

Each kalapa is in a continuous state of change. The Buddha experienced the subtler reality that quantum physicists search in their hunt for the ‘god particle’ such as the Higgs boson.

This ‘I’ to which we develop so much attachment is merely mind-matter phenomenon of subatomic particles arising and passing each moment. Being with this reality of impermanence decreases the ego – the biggest hindrance to meaningful success and peace of mind.

Being with the present moment improves quality of work and life. A concentrated mind suffers no distractions from task at hand. That is why successful people get immersed in the moment. Top athletes excel in “the zone”, a bubble of impenetrable concentration focussed on the present moment.

Far greater benefits are reaped in the supra mundane life, when being in the present moment becomes core of successful meditation practice. By being in the present moment, we master the mind instead of being its slave.

Not that the past is erased from memory and the future disappears. We access the storage of past experiences and make plans for the future from a conscious decision to do so, not from wild wanderings of the mind like a driver losing control of the car.

Mastery of the mind can be gained with practice of Anapana being taught online these pandemic times. Anapana, the preparatory exercise for Vipassana, focuses on awareness of the natural respiration – the in-coming, outgoing breath, as it is, this moment. No artificial regulation of the breath as in pranayama.

“We have to experience the ocean of infinite waves surging within, the river of inner sensations flowing within, countless vibrations within every atom of the body,” wrote Sayagyi U Goenka. “We have to witness our continuously changing nature - all happening at an extremely subtle level. To reach this state, we have to start observing the flow of respiration.”

Being in the present moment strengthens the mind. Stronger mind leads to better life. A strong, concentrated mind never postpones. It focuses on work this moment – the essential to success.

The life of the cosmos, celestial and human beings have the inescapable basis of impermanence, from moment to moment. How well we live depends on how well we use this moment.

(from an article in The Statesman published from Kolkata, New Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Siliguri, India.)
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Vipassana Centres worldwide

 * How to Reach Global Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai, India

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